Today, after sitting in storage for over 20 years, my brother and I dusted off his old IBM PS/2 Model 50 (8550-021), with the goal of cleaning it up and making sure it still works. It was still working when he stored it, so it should still be okay today (barring any unavoidable degradation caused by the slow march of time). As far as he remembers, it’s got DOS installed on its 20MB hard drive (and a bunch of games).
I’ve taken it apart completely so that I can set to cleaning it thoroughly tomorrow. Everything seems to be in relatively pristine condition (save for the case, which is battered in a grungy, industrial kind of way). A visual inspection didn’t reveal anything blown or out of the ordinary on the motherboard or HDD/FDD riser cards, and from what I can tell without opening it up, the PSU seems to not feature any blown caps either.
Originally, I was planning on just getting some cheap PS/2 keyboard and mouse somewhere (turns out none of us owns any of those any more), but the more I was awestruck by the industrial beauty and elegance of the PS/2 and its modular internals, I felt overcome by a strong urge to do this machine justice – assuming it still works, I’m buying the original PS/2 mouse and IBM Model M keyboard. It’s the least I can do.
I’ve also been looking at other ways to expand and upgrade the device (which I’ll do only after having confirmed it still works, of course). I’ve found an AST Advantage/2 RAM expansion/SCSI controller 16-bit MCA card (with 4MB of RAM installed) in an online store, which would be a neat way to add some additional memory to the machine. It’s a multifunction MCA card that adds 8 RAM slots and a SCSI interface to the PS/2. I’m not entirely sure how these additional RAM slots work (i.e., does any RAM get added to extended memory?), but for its relatively low price, it seems like an interesting exotic piece of hardware to own either way.
There are other, far more substantial upgrades and peripherals I’d like to add to it, such as the IBM 486SLC2-50/25 processor upgrade kit (incredibly rare and prohibitively expensive if you do find one) or a math co-processor (haven’t been able to find one, and would be rather useless for running a few DOS games anyway). Additionally, there are rare things like an MCA Sound Blaster or SGI IrisVision (more information) that’d be awesome to have, but I doubt I’ll ever find them. I’d also love to get my hands on a matching IBM PS/2-era monitor, but I highly doubt I’ll be able to find one that is in relatively good condition, close enough so I wouldn’t have to ship it (dangerous), and not incredibly expensive.
This (admittedly modest) project has me quite excited, and I can’t wait to see if it still works. This is not some disposable, faceless early 2000s Compaq or whatever – this is an iconic and truly classic machine that deserves care, attention, and continued periodic maintenance, even if it’ll only serve as decoration. You don’t just throw out or dump an IBM PS/2, and I possess the skills and passion to keep it in working order, so why not do so?
I had a very similar if not identical system to that 486 with the co-processor. We threw away most of that stuff when I went to college. Still have an old IBM PS/2 laptop like this one that probably will get purged as well.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/WORKING-Vintage-IBM-PS-2-Laptop-Model-L40SX…
I bet we all have tons of crap just sitting somewhere collecting dust over the decades.
I’m pretty sure my family still has two of those 486DLC boards; I didn’t know they were valuable. At the time it was just a cheap way to upgrade a 386 system without throwing it in the trash, although the upgrade itself performed pretty well – I was happy running Windows 95 on those machines whereas my friends weren’t happy doing that on the native 486DX2s of the day.
It ended up being obsoleted once I was trying to do much more computationally intensive work, like javac (groan.)
My first computer was an PS/2 Model 50 in the early 90s – 10MHz 286 with the FPU (80287), 1MB RAM, 20MB HDD and the matching IBM 12″ VGA display. This machine we picked up cheap at an auction – they had come from the New Zealand Refining Company (our only oil refinery).
That system I learned MSDOS, and played a lot of Wolfenstein in a tiny window while other people I knew had 386 and early 486 machines (That could play DOOM!)
I kept the model 50 for over 10 years, but it along with a lot of my early computer hardware got binned when my grandparents purged a lot of stuff stored in their garage in the mid 2000s while I was traveling and moving around a lot.
I have that same laptop running OS/2 1.1. They are quite collectable and get snapped up quickly on eBay.
The problem with older IBM machines are faltering parts that are hard to replace. In my case a P70 and a P55SX both with the same failed floppy drive unique to both these models. No chance of finding a spare one anywhere in any working state. All my efforts to adapt a standard floppy to the odd cabling used in these have failed so far.
I once owned a PS/2 model 70, I believe, and I loved the lever and the fact it was on the *front* instead of on the side near the back. That said, I’m pretty chuffed with modern push buttons and (related) suspend capabilities.
Also, your brother (presumably) had a good taste in music
Edited 2017-02-15 22:24 UTC
I had about half a dozen Model 30’s, and a Model 50 something that I’m pretty sure had a 486 with a 50 MHz processor.
They were being thrown out by the local community college, so I took them home. Keyboards, monitors, PS/2 mice and all. I was probably 11-12 years old and it took several trips.
They mostly all worked, some would boot to DOS and some would go to some kind of BASIC. There was a mismatch of 720k and 1.44MB floppy drives, and some had a 5MB hard disk drive in them. Some monitors were monochrome if I recall correctly. I could get Windows 3.1, not the WFW version, to install and work reasonably well on the higher end machines. Wolf3d would run; Doom would not. Prince of Persia had a satisfying feel on the keyboard.
I was a poor latchkey kid and one of the few times I got in trouble, it was for trading my original NES at a yard sale for DOS 6.22 to install on these machines. Probably not a good deal a the time, but I learned a lot more from those PS/2’s than I would have from the NES.
I found that the 30 pin SIMMs from the 486 fit and worked perfectly in the family Packard Bell, so we ended up with 12MB of RAM in that machine.
When I graduated college, I vowed to clean out the bedroom at my parents house and sell all of these computers. I got an offer for $300 for the whole setup from Craigslist, but ultimately couldn’t part with them. So that’s where they are sitting ten years later. Minus one Model M PS/2 keyboard. I brought that with me to South America and am typing on it now.
Man, I would love those old levers back. When I’m turning off the PC using the hardware switch, 99% of the time it’s because the software is locked up. Hence, when I hit the off switch, I want the f–king thing to turn off IMMEDIATELY. At least give me the option in the bios for a double press or something
Edited 2017-02-16 00:20 UTC
It had a VGA monitor back in 1987!! A-ma-zing!!
My first 286 back in ’89 had Hercules monitor cause a VGA monitor cost more than the entire computer haha
I even dreamed about VGA monitors back in the day I really really wanted one (to play videogames obviously)… my dad finally bought me one a couple of years later around ’91. And even at those times it was damn expensive. (got the VGA monitor with a pirated copy of “Another World” hehe)
Ah, the good old times…
Edited 2017-02-16 06:09 UTC
I really miss that machine.
Even though it cost me – in relative terms – more than my current dual Xeon workstations, it was amazing machine.
2MB RAM, VGA, 20MB drive. It ran circles around the old 8Mhz XT machine it replaced.
Sadly enough I was stupid enough to sell it and replace it by a no-name 486/50 machine
– Gilboa
Edited 2017-02-16 07:21 UTC
I myself just finished rebuilding the video and analog power board assemblies of an original VT102 terminal which I keep as my kernel workstation for my HADOOP cluster.
Old Equipment is fun! 🙂 However, for me the VT100 series is not only ICONIC, it was how I learned C by writing a terminal display driver for my BBS software on my Atari ST.
It greatly affected my development in computing.
Load LINUX on it. 🙂
All this work before you even try to see if it works? Plug it in, if it releases the magic smoke, move on.
Looks like the early MCA PS/2s actually scanned through RAM, and remapped failed RAM out of the memory map. On a 386 (the Model 80), this was simply done by programming the 386’s MMU (although now I’m wondering just how involved the PS/2 BIOS is – does this mean that booting DOS on a 386 PS/2 started in V86 mode?)
On a 286 (Models 50/60), however, this was done externally to the CPU, using “translation RAM” to store a mapping between the addresses the CPU sees, and physical addresses. So, it could easily map out bad RAM… but the TRAM could be mapped however you wanted, really, and QEMM 50/60 took full advantage of this to give EMS 4.0 on a PS/2 Model 50/60.
Here’s the problem… apparently the AST Advantage/2 didn’t have any TRAM, so the whole card is mapped into the CPU’s address space directly. That means it’s XMS – fine for OS/2, *nix, and Windows 3.x, but you’re not getting any EMS, so not as fine for some DOS stuff or Windows 2.x.
Edited 2017-02-16 12:58 UTC
Woah thanks, that’s incredibly useful information! Despite this, I still think the Advantage/2 is an interesting piece of hardware, even if it’s only useful in OS/2 or Windows 3.x.
Do you have any more general tips or advice you could share with us? You’re clearly way more knowledgeable about this stuff than I am.
bhtooefr,
Anyways, the only software today that I’m aware of still using real mode x86 code is the legacy bios and bootloaders. Both of these could be on their way out as UEFI replaces them.
Thanks for the info! I’m really curious to see how the Advantage/2 RAM holds up, and in what ways the system can use it.
The hint is in the name – EMM386 only worked if you had a 386. 286s didn’t have a way to run DOS (real mode) software inside of protected mode, so their MMU was completely inactive in DOS.
There is a PS/2 Models 50/60 version of QEMM, but it’s only applicable if your RAM card has TRAM, so that pages can be allocated at will without using the 286’s MMU. The Advantage/2 apparently does not.
bhtooefr,
Can’t say I’ve used QEMM back then.
Has anyone actually got a 286? Megol recent brought up 286’s protected mode limitations, I’m impressed people here remember back that far
Edited 2017-02-16 22:42 UTC
I don’t actually have any 286 machines – I can only bracket it on either side, with a 186 (which is basically just an 8086 with go-faster stripes – mine doesn’t have the on-die peripherals that a 186 normally has, instead having XT-compatible peripherals, seeing as it’s the HP Hornet) and a 386SX.
But I think that requires a 386 and its paged MMU. Thom’s model is the original 286 variety.
But then again, who gives a shit about EMS/XMS. Just load up OS/2 1.3 with presentation manager, or get an old copy of Xenix, Coherent or Minix and run something vaguely useful on there.
On the subject of 286s and the 486slc upgrade referred to earlier, how does that work? Is it an MCA card or something? I remember the IBM 486slc used the 80386sx bus interface, but that’s no use here as i suspect it’s not compatible with 286 signaling.
The upgrade in question had logic to interface between 386SX and 286 signalling (which were close anyway, just not quite close enough).
I have no warm memories of this machine or any microchannel machines, and it was precisely IBM’s attempt to take back control by introducing proprietary incompatibility that caused me to ban their procurement at a large oil company site at which I worked at the time.
It was a dumb idea at the time, doomed to fail, and 20 years in the attic hasn’t made it any better.
I don’t appreciate you talking about my ex-girlfriend like that.
Nice machine with a dual pentium pro (yes both of two working), scsi HD and cd-rom, original keyboard and 256 MB of main memory. Was quite expensive on his heydays.
Just to check turned it on today, worked flawless to the Slackware login prompt and thats it, as I can not remember the password after not logging to it in something like 5 or more years. :p
Casualty alert: the original mouse died a long time ago! :'(
Edited 2017-02-16 17:37 UTC
My employer settled on IBM micro computers because no one ever got fired for buying IBM. We had 30’s, 50’s and 60’s initially which meant a smattering of ISA and MCA slots which led us to DCA IRMAcards which could go either way. The 30 power switch was red and it connected to the real power switch in the rear with a coat hanger type rod…smooth. My favorite was the 60. I called her Guzunda, ’cause she goes under the desk.
The 486SLC was awful. It used a 386SX bus – 16 bits. (Which I suppose is the best you can do when upgrading a 286) We had a slew of those things, and they were *really* slow. Okay for Win 3.1, but forget Win95. I guess that’s still better than the 286 that the Mod 50 came with, but if performance is what you’re searching for you’re not starting with the right system in the first place.
I’ve got a sweet Model 90 with AIX PS/2 running on it.
Edited 2017-02-16 21:51 UTC
486-slc/dlc are to a 386, what a 5×86 is to a 486-sx/dx/dx2.
I have, kind of like a complete original and working Unisys Pw/2 Series 300. Original with the complete original manual in it’s cover/box. The original EGA monitor, the original 1987 optical sperry 3-button mouse and the original keyboard.
This however is only one of my 13 complete working machines, ranging from 286 to Pentium-4.
If people would look at vogons, then that article is everyday stuff, for us that are bitten by the retro-bug.
I still have a box of MCA cards & components, to go with my Model 80 and Model 55SX. (And I’m typing on a Model M. :¬) )
I *might* have an Ethernet card you could have for the thing in there if you want, Thom.
In terms of memory management, there was a special 80286 PS/2 one called, IIRC, BlueMax. It could create UMB EMS out of XMS on the Model 50 & Model 60. Only useful with DOS & DOS apps. It might be out there on the abandonware sites somewhere.
lproven,
I have an assortment of legacy ISA & PCI cards that I would be happy to give away: ethernet, graphics, sound and even an analog&digital IO board. The 386 IBM laptop too. It could probably fetch something on ebay, but I don’t really want the hassle. Anyone on long island want this stuff?
Edited 2017-02-17 13:37 UTC
That is as may be, but those are no help with a PS/2 which lacks both ISA and PCI. :¬)
Yes, you might be able to sell them, but this is not the forum for discussing that.
The Facebook group “Vintage Computer Club” might be a good start.
lproven,
Ouch, I think this is the first time in all my years on osnews I’ve been called out for going off topic, haha. I’m certainly guilty of that, but to be fair I wasn’t using osnews to sell anything, only mentioning that I have them and anybody else nearby is welcome to them. I think that’s acceptable, but if not then I await Thom’s reprimand.
Besides, if I’m guilty of offering old PC parts, then as the OP who started it, so are you
Is anyone else actually on long island?
Edited 2017-02-17 16:44 UTC
I had one at work. Nobody knew how to use the thing (it was a mainframe shop, after all) so I put in on my desk and learned DOS with it. I already knew BASIC so I created a label making program. I was labeling boxes and cabinets all over the department. It was a fine computer from what I remember.
My parents had a 386 PS/2 that they used daily until just a few years ago. It was in as-new condition because it cost them a fortune when bought new and so it was treated with much love. The PS/2 died in around 2000 but amazingly my parents had bought a life time warranty and so IBM fixed it for free. Annoyingly my parents binned the PC a few years ago (apparently it was too slow!). Thankfully they kept the wonderful mechanical keyboard which I then sold on eBay for £45. I think they still have the original PS/2 manual and the hefty Windows 3.0 guide too.
Friend of mine worked a computer scrap shop and loved to repeat a tale about a coworker of his who had a pile of old PS/2 tower cases which had filled with concrete and used to dam up a creek behind his house.
For a while, I had a PS/2 luggable, which was a big thing the size of a suitcase and weighed like 30 pounds. Laptops were still very rare in those days so this PS/2 luggable was actually high tech.
Later on in my IT career, the company I was with had a partnership with a government agency I won’t name, who had installed one of their machines on our network. The case was all sealed and epoxied shut and welded in places. But it did have VGA, power and network ports. Mostly it didn’t show anything but once in a while the agency who owned it would reboot it for some reason and we could see the mystery box was running OS/2 Warp. We assumed the box itself was a PS/2. That machine remained in use until about 2008.
Meanwhile the company I worked for had LONG settled on OS/2 REXX as their scripting language of choice. Everything was in REXX with call outs to other languages when needed. And it ran very well indeed, the result of close to two decades of evolution and updates and tweaks. As far as I know, all the REXX systems have been decommissioned by now. But it really served us well.
I’ve always heard that old hard drives that have been sitting around for a long time can develop problems with spindle bearings and stiction in the read/write positioning arms.
Has that been a problem at all here?